We're Here for You
by Mina-chin
Summary: Set before the crew reaches Dressrosa. Nami is worried about her captain. Ever since the reunion, there hasn't been time to talk about something important. So once a chance opens up, Nami seizes it! One-shot!


**Heya! I haven't really been active here, and I know there's this other story which I should finish, I'm just not sure where to got with it... Anyway, I was bored and wrote this little one-shot. It's rather serious, and I hope they're not ooc... Anyway, I'd really like it if you reviewed this one! :D **

* * *

**We're Here For You**

Nami sat down at her table in the library. They finally had a moment of piece on the Sunny. Ever since they'd gotten to the New World there hadn't been a single moment of quiet. After dealing with a psycho-stalker and Arlong junior on Fishman Island, they had to cope with a crazy scientist and now they're sailing towards an insane ruler who happened to be one of the Seven Warlords. Great.

She still had her suspicions about this pirate alliance affair. Not because she didn't trust Trafalgar Law. That was out of the question. Luffy trusted him and Nami had faith in her captain's judgement. Even though he could be incredibly dense at times, he was astonishingly skilled in reading people. And from everything she'd heard, they did owe Trafalgar Law an awful lot. After all, he did save their captain, when none of them even knew about the dangers Luffy had gone through.

No, trusting Law was really not the problem. But it was bothering Nami that he was obviously hiding something from them. She didn't know whether the others had noticed yet, but Law wasn't telling them the entire truth. And even though his betrayal was not something they had to fear, not knowing what exactly they were getting themselves into was. For all Nami knew they were about to piss off one of the Four Emperors and after the whole fiasco at Fishman Island – Luffy _had_ to go and provoke Big Mom (who is, by the way, also one of the Four Emperors) – Nami really didn't feel like making another big name their enemy.

She sighed and dropped her head onto the table. Her perfectly sorted drawing utensils shook from the impact and a pencil rolled over the table. Nami watched it fall over the edge and heard the clicking noise it made once it landed on the wooden floor. Sighing again, she bowed to pick it up when a thought struck her.

Forgetting all about the pencil, she straightened and hurried over to the bookshelf. There was a collection of newspaper articles from two years ago and if she remembered correctly, Robin had added a recent one to it just a few days ago. Nami looked through numerous articles starting from the one covering the imprisonment of Ace, going over several pages about the war until she finally found the article she had been looking for. It had a picture of somebody she'd only seen once, right before they had gone to Skypiea. Back then, she never would have imagined that such a silly-looking drunkard was capable of such evil. Next to it, the headline read: _Blackbeard retiring from his Warlord position – he's now one of the Four Emperors!_

Nami wasn't sure whether Luffy knew about this, but it was pretty obvious that her captain would not be happy about this kind of news. And neither was Nami. Her hopes for a quieter journey became less and less realistic. Three of the most notorious pirates known were out for their heads and their captain was out for some challenges. _Maybe Red Hair would help us_, Nami thought while putting the newspaper collection back to its original place.

Right then she heard the commotion outside. Her first thought was the Navy. But after a few seconds Nami heard Luffy running and screaming something about food and being hungry and her heart calmed down. She picked up the pencil and placed it neatly on her table, before walking out of the door. All that worrying had made her forget how hungry she was.

* * *

Dinner was the same as usual. Well, probably a bit different since Law was there. But aside from that, it was the same as always. Sanji was swooning over Nami and Robin, Luffy was stealing some food, and the others were chatting and joking about Usopp's failed fishing-attempt. Even though it was one of his favourite hobbies on deck, he was incredibly bad at it.

"I just had a bad day!" he complained. "Everybody has one once in a while. But on my good days, I can capture even the most vicious Sea Kings and make them obey my every command!"

"REALLY?" Chopper's eyes sparkled and he was so fascinated that he failed to notice the hand grabbing some of the meat on his tray, and stuffing it into Luffy's mouth.

Trafalgar Law was just staring at his tray. Nami wasn't sure whether he was just in thought or whether he wasn't sure how to deal with the whole situation. He didn't seem like the social type.

"Law, I'd like to ask you something", Nami said in a slightly raised voice, in order to drown out the crew's chit-chat. Unexpectedly, the noise faded away and everybody stared at her, even Luffy stopped stealing food for a moment. Law raised his gaze and gave a questioning look. "Why are you so keen on pissing off one of the Emperors? I don't recall you telling us the reason."

The look in his eyes changed just for a brief moment, right before it returned to the neutral, slightly bored expression, he usually put on.

"Does a pirate need a reason to fight another?"

Nami wasn't satisfied with this kind of rhetorical question as an answer. "No, but with this alliance you are staking your position as one of the Warlords. Is that worth a pirate's brawl?"

Law just grinned coldly. "It is."

"Yeah, let's kick some butts!" Luffy yelled before he laughed loudly. The others continued laughing but Nami shot her captain a worried look. There was something bothering her about the way he sought fights against the Emperors. And Nami was pretty sure it was connected to Marshall D. Teach. Luffy had never run from fights, but he had never fought without a reason. Every time he had started a battle, it was because something kick-started his protective instinct. But this was not one of those cases. This seemed an awful lot like revenge.

* * *

After dinner they all tended to their own work. So Nami went up to her and Robin's room , lay down on her bed and stared at her ceiling. Completely lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice somebody entering the room.

"So you did notice something was off about him?"

Nami quickly sat up, leaning onto her elbows. Robin was standing in front of the door, elbows crossed.

"What do you mean?"

"Trafalgar Law. He's hiding something. That's why you were questioning him before, right?"

"Yeah." Nami leaned her head on her pillow and continued staring at the ceiling.

"Is something else bothering you?"

"Actually, yes", she answered. Nami hadn't noticed until just now, but her thoughts hadn't been circling around Law's secrets until robin had reminded her of them. They had been occupied with something else. "Don't you think that something about Luffy just seems... off?"

Robin walked to her bed and sat down, crossing her legs. "What do you mean?"

"Robin." Her friend gave her a questioning look, as Nami sat up to face her. "Do you think he's had the chance to talk to somebody about what happened back at Marineford?"

A shadow came over her friend's face as she dropped her gaze. "I'm not sure." Her eyes focused on Nami again. "Are you worried about him?"

"Yes." Nami thought about how to express her worries best. "You know, I've experienced the same thing as Luffy. Not exactly the same, but my mother was shot right in front of me. I can imagine what kind of pain he must have gone through after Ace's death. And I noticed some things... How he sometimes just stares at the horizon, as if he's looking for something. How he sometimes hides his sadness behind that annoying, goofy grin. And I'm just not sure whether it's wise to keep all of that bottled up."

Robin just gave her a kind smile. "You know, Luffy went through a tough time. Things like that change us. If you're really that worried, you should go talk to him."

"You're right." And with that Nami stood up and walked out of her room, in search for her captain.

* * *

She must have spent quite some time thinking about her captain. Once she stepped out, her eyes had trouble adjusting to the darkness. The sun had set and the stars and moon were the only things providing light. Once her eyes had gotten used to the dark, she scoured the deck for Luffy. Lucky for her he was on watch-out today. And lucky for her, her captain was loyal to his favourite place on the ship.

And as expected, she found him sitting on the figurehead, staring out into the darkness.

"Why are you out here?" he asked, after unavailingly waiting for her to speak.

"I just wanted to talk with you for a bit." She climbed on the figurehead and crawled next to him.

"I see", was everything he said.

"Luffy." She was well aware that her voice was about to crack. Her captain shot her a surprised look. "I'm sorry."

He didn't seem to understand. His surprise just turned into curiosity and confusion.

"We should have been there with you."

A wave of understanding swept over his face and along with it, a brief moment in which he looked pained. That one moment was enough to let Nami understand. He was not over it. Maybe he would never be.

They were both quiet for a while. Nami didn't want to push him into this conversation. She wanted him to tell her on his own. So she just sat there with her knees against her chest and stared into the dark ocean with him. Until he broke the silence.

"Nami."

She looked at him and was surprised to find a slight smile on his face. It was not a happy smile, not the usual idiotic smile which could be found on her captain's face. It wasn't his confident smile either. This smile was full of pain and it broke her heart.

"You don't need to apologise", Luffy said. "To be honest, I'm glad you guys were not there."

"Why?"

"If you had been, one of you might have died." He stopped and glanced over at her. "As it is, none of you had to die."

"But we should have helped you!" Nami shifted and was now directly looking at Luffy. "We should have been there for you."

"You did help me." Now the pain disappeared from his face and was replaced with a happy smile.

"What do you mean?" She asked and was relieved that the sorrow had disappeared from his facial features.

"That day, I almost died myself. And I guess a part of me really did" Luffy said, eliciting a small gasp from his navigator. "After I woke up... Well, let's say, I was a mess." His hand want up and started rubbing his neck. Nami wasn't sure whether that meant he was thinking or embarrassed. "My whole beliefs were shattered. And what got me going was you guys. I knew I had to become stronger. So I could protect you."

Nami couldn't hold it any longer. She leaned over and hugged him, pressing his head to her chest. All the time trying to hold back her tears. She was not the sentimental type, but Luffy was the last person to deserve so much pain.

"Nami?" he sounded confused, surprised.

"Sorry", she spluttered. Her voice simply didn't want to sound normal. "I just really want to hug you right now."

Luffy laughed; it was his usual easy-going laugh. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!"

So she let go of him – even though she didn't want to – and tried to hide her embarrassment. Because, let's face it, that was _really_ embarrassing just now. That she of all people would react like this... But apparently, her captain didn't think it was strange at all.

Luffy laughed again and this time, she joined in. "Luffy."

"Yeah?"

"You know we're here when you need us. "

"Doesn't matter what?" he asked, surprising Nami.

"Of course", she stated seriously. "Why? Do you need something?"

"Well..." Nami didn't know what she was expecting. After having this rather serious conversation with her goofy captain – it was already a miracle that he could be serious – maybe she was expecting another deep thought. "I'm really hungry."

And then Nami hit him on the head. "You had something to eat a few hours ago."

"But you said no matter what!" He whined, sounding like a child – nothing like the sobriety and maturity from a minute ago.

"That doesn't count!" she yelled.

"Eeeeeeeh?" He gave her a puppy-look and for once it nearly worked. Nearly.

"Don't try to exploit me, you good-for-nothing!" She hit him again.

"These punches really hurt... You sure, you're not using haki?"

"Shut up, idiot!"

They continued bickering for a while until Nami decided to head to bed. And on her way she wondered what this weird feeling was that started ingraining itself in her gut.

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**Yeah, that's it! :D I hope you like it, cuz seriously... I'm not really good at this stuff ^^" As I said, I'm really happy about all kinds of reviews and if you spot any mistakes, feel free to point them out, I'll try to correct them! Thanks for reading! ^^**


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